movie.act2p2

scenes xxxvii-xlix

Getting in With Time

           “There she is! So retro-cool,” Colin swooned as he and Arthur leaned in to study a small yet bulky suitcase-style computer from the early 80s, its dull phosphorus screen displaying a text adventure while its happy late-40s owner proudly stood by the table. “This portable workhorse was totally underappreciated in computing history.”

           “Ah, to be a government employee with one of these…” Arthur added. “Walking down some beige hallway in a fancy gray suit, lugging an Osborn under warm lights…”

           “Guys, we can’t stop and stare at every computer in this place,” muttered Wes, he and Jared behind them and not as enthusiastic. “It’s been hours, yet we’re not even half-way done. And did we have to…” he yawned, “get here when the doors opened?”

           Jared groaned. “We could move at a more reasonable pace if you just didn’t bring up the tech specs for each machine. We’re really impressed that you know about so many chipsets and sound cards, but could we at least get to the 90s hardware?”

           Colin and Arthur both sighed and grumbled, but did cut their gawking a little short and got back to walking with their friends in the large convention hall, next to Royal Valley’s airport. Old physical games and peripherals were on sale, and over a hundred vintage computers were on display across the space. Hard drive clicks and MIDI sounds filled the room, and while the event couldn’t bring in crowds like an anime or gaming expo, it was still as busy as King Arcade on a weekday.

           “C’mon, Wes, I thought you still liked this stuff,” Colin said. “Then again… I guess I do remember now that you two only ever went to the first SiliCon with us.”

           “Yeah, it was an annual thing with you and Arty. It’s cool and I can nerd out a bit, too, but there’s nothing here that screams ‘come back next year’ to me.”

           Arthur argued, “I get that you’re both programmers and more interested in the newest and best production software instead of old clunky apps, but you have to admit, just the fact that passionate people can keep machines that are coming up on five decades in age running like they’re new is kind of… Well, it’s special, right?”

           Wes smiled a little as they walked. “Yeah, I know. I do appreciate their hard work and conviction. I love seeing things preserved, but maybe when it’s only computers, the focus is too narrow to keep me fascinated? I think I wanna see all of the past preserved somehow. Hell, maybe it is, and we just need a time machine to visit that big museum.”

           “Okay, sure,” Colin lightly scoffed. “But we live in a time where all we can do is drag the past out of our attics and closets to put on display, so enjoy what we got.”

           “Don’t get me wrong, Colin—I just like getting a chance to spend some time with my old buds, no matter what we’re doing. If you think I’m grumpy… to be fair, I did spend all day here just last month with my daughter at the Lego convention.”

           Arthur suggested, “All right, let’s find something Wes would be interested—”

           “Ah—now we’re talking!” Wes interrupted and rushed up to another table the instant he could see its display. “Yo, Jared—they got all the classics running!”

           The other three walked over to an array of six monitors, each displaying playable PC games from the 80s and early 90s. Everything from IBMs and an Apple II, to a classic monochrome Macintosh and the first machines that could run Windows showed off well-known titles, and this thrilled Wes as much as could be expected.

           “SimCity 2000, Doom II, Worms, Keen… J, let’s chill here while Colin and Arty go around geeking out about their circuit boards. We know game design is the real art form.”

           “And this isn’t geeking out?” Jared replied. “I’ve played these a hundred times.”

           Wes’ phone pinged, and he said as he took it out of his pocket to check it, “Sure, but here we could attract and impress a crowd with our… Uh… The hell is this…?”

           “Wes, what’s up?” Colin asked him. “Text from Sadie? Kid get in trouble?”

           “No, it’s… I don’t know what to make of it.” He showed the others the message.

           Arthur read off the text as he and Colin scanned it a few times, “Wes, SOS. This is Jason. Open safe at work. Get thing. Instructions at Millie’s. First summer Saturday, at 6 PM, 1998. DTE. HURRY.” He stood up straight again and scratched his chin. “Colin. I’m not alone in suddenly but vaguely remembering that one time Jason Connor got us to try sending a text message into the future, right? Didn’t your dad help us with that?”

           Colin closed his eyes, concentrated, and murmured, “Mmm… Yeah, I do sort of recall that. He never showed us what he wrote… What did he write? What happened back in 1998? If this is some inside joke, I don’t get it. Maybe it’s a riddle? Weird.”

           The four stood by the vintage computers for a moment, pondering, until Jared spoke up, “I don’t think I was there for it, but I guess it’s an interesting little blast from the past. Not interesting enough to leave here to check Wes’ wall safe though, I take it.”

           Wes, Colin, and Arthur glanced at the machines, and then stared at each other.

           “If this turns out to be nothing, we can still go back to the convention before closing, right?” Arthur wondered as soon as the four of them were off the elevator.

           “Sure,” Wes replied and took out his company key. “It’s not like I’m expecting to find some mystical thing in my wall safe that has ‘open in an emergency,’ on it… but the fact that Jason Connor somehow knew I’d have one at all is… eerie. And is the reason I couldn’t just shrug off the text. I mean, how many people have a safe at work?”

           “Maybe he thought you’d grow up to be a banker?” Colin said half-heartedly.

           “Well, whatever this is about, it’s still a good excuse to finally show you two RV Indie, where the magic happens,” Jared remarked as Wes unlocked the door.

           “I’ve seen the pictures, but…” Colin paused and they stepped into the large open space, where he and Arthur took in the sight of an impressive game development office. “These are nice digs. I can’t believe you guys scored an entire floor at Victory Plaza.”

           “How many do you employ?” Arthur questioned. “And do you pay Brian well?”

           “About forty, and yes,” Wes answered. “Don’t forget, this all started in Jared’s garage a few years after college. Us, Brian, and three to five others who came and went. We poured our hearts into that first game. Long nights that continued into the garage of the first house I had with Sadie, all while I kept working a crappy IT job to pay the bills. Years roll on, Warren surprises us, and then when he turns three… we finally publish.”

           “Wes nearly had a heart attack when he saw the first month’s digital sales,” Jared continued the tale with a wide grin. “I could be humble, but I definitely think my minor in advertising and social media presence helped a lot. After Suburban Kingdom went viral, we kept that momentum going, skipping the buy-a-vacant-lot-on-the-outskirts part and jumping right to getting a lease in the heart of Royal Valley. And look at us now.”

           “It’s a success story, no doubt, but, Wes… is your heart still in it?” Colin asked.

           Looking at framed video game memorabilia as he pushed at his personal office’s glass door, Wes sighed, “It is. But I’m in that phase where I’ve made all the stories I always wanted to, and now I’m in the doldrums while I try to find inspiration and new ideas. Or wait for some to come to me. It’s not exactly writer’s block… More like mud.”

           Colin got close to one glass box in particular. “Is that… your old Super Nintendo in there? Some good memories in that plastic. Something will come to you, Wes.”

           “Heh. Who knows? Texts from the past… Could be a game there, somewhere.”

           They went into the office, where Arthur and Colin toured Wes’ mini-museum. Toys and iconic media were immortalized in glass cubes and frames on the walls, and the window offered a view of the theme park in the distance. Wes went to his wall safe, hesitated, and then instead showed off his desk’s photo of the entire gang in July, 1996.

           “Jason was an enigma,” he said. “Comes out of nowhere, brightens up our lives, and then he’s gone, barely leaving any evidence that he was here. Arty, you took so many photos of us, and yet I’ve scoured through our albums, Googled him, and… nothing.”

           “I don’t know, man,” he replied. “He always seemed to avoid the camera. But some people can still just disappear from the story, even in this connected world.”

           “Wes, I’ve played all your games so far,” Colin added. “You haven’t made one about us, yet, but there are so many plot points, items, bits of scenery, and dialogue in them and their everyday neighborhood, Earthbound-inspired environments that I connect with, it’s like I revisit the past when I explore them. As if it is our lives you’re sharing.”

           Wes shrugged. “They say to write what you know. And I’m passionate about our childhoods. Games provide a deeper, more interactive experience than movies or books. As long as you throw in some proven tropes, good dialogue, art, and reward system, you can convey a memory or feeling better than the authors of other media forms do. I want to invite players of all ages to get a taste of what we knew, and I want to get better at it.”

           Jared smirked. “He gets so philosophical about this stuff. I just like to make funny characters, and minigames you actually want to play. Wes!” he snapped, “quit keeping us in suspense! We all admire your ego and vision, but open the damn safe already.”

           Now mentally prepared, Wes did so by tapping “030485” into the keypad above the etched words, “ONLY OPEN IN CASE OF EMERGENCY.”

           It buzzed and a latch unlocked, and he first reminded the others, “I don’t know why I forgot what I put in here. But I trust whatever reason I had to scratch that in. If this is just a joke…” He opened the safe—to find only a piece of scrap paper inside. As his friends looked at him curiously, he took it and read, “Do you need a second chance? Find it in your storage unit. Visit Narnia with Lucy. Millie knows the rest. Be careful.”

           “Now we got riddles?” Jared muttered. “I hate riddles… But it does make for a good second layer of security, for this… thing the text mentions. Where’s your unit?”

           Wes grumbled. “By the airport. Where we just came from. Fine. Back to the car.”

           At about four in the afternoon, Wes drove past the convention hall with his three friends, who were enjoying the luxuries of his quiet new Lucid Air sedan. As a passenger jet came in for a landing beyond the expo, Sadie’s face appeared on the car touch screen.

           “Hey, hon,” Wes said after answering. “We just left the event. What’s up?”

           “Wes, I talked to both Lex and your sister a few minutes ago,” Sadie’s voice came through the speakers. “They’re not sure where Jace and Laurie are. I’m not worried, yet, but they aren’t responding to texts. Do you know if they had any plans today?”

           “Oh… No, but I’m sure it’s nothing. You know how teens can be. Did you get in touch with the other kids or their parents? They’re probably at one of their houses.”

           “They better be. It’s just that this kind of radio silence is unusual for them. I’ll try Chad and Toby first, since they’re the… you know, rebellious ones. What time are you going to be home? I’m making a pot roast for everyone, but I’d still like an estimate.”

           “Sounds good, Said’,” Colin piped from the front seat.

           “Hopefully you’ll get to try some, Colin; Warren’s gotten voracious recently.”

           “I’m gonna show them the office, but we should be home by six,” Wes replied.

           “Okay, Wes. And if you bought an old computer today that would sit around the house, you might as well go ahead and stow it away at the studio instead. Love you.”

           Once she had hung up, Wes exhaled, “She does not like me adding more nostalgia stuff to the home, if you couldn’t tell. I hate lying to her, but I don’t even know how to explain what we’re doing right now. Well, here we are. Almost a third home of mine.”

           “We saw the futon in your office,” Arthur said as Wes pulled into a large storage site’s parking lot and took a key out of a compartment. “You get enough sleep?”

           “A few months out of the year, when we don’t have some self-imposed deadline. Tch. If Luce makes me go into protective uncle mode and scour Desert Tree for Jace…”

           “We were sometimes running around the neighborhood past go-home time for hours,” Jared reminded. “Now we freak out if a text goes unanswered for a minute.”

           “When Jake’s old enough to start wandering the old streets and blocks, you’ll get it, J,” Wes said and locked his car. “The long, slow days of kid time don’t mesh with the hours-feel-like-minutes lives of adults who feed on a constant stream of updates.”

           The four entered the climate-controlled building and traversed a concrete, sterile hallway of orange rolling shutters that sealed away hundreds of time capsules.

           Wes opened his padlock, near the entrance, and pulled up the shutters to reveal a ten-by-ten space—on the larger side for units. The guys stood for a moment in stunned silence before joining him and filling up the narrow walkway between shelves that were overstuffed yet organized; loaded with old toys, tech, and everything in between.

           “Wow, Wes,” Colin said, his eyes taking in the colors and shapes. “It almost looks like your childhood room in here. Is that… your Virtual Boy? Your M&M dispenser… Oh, your Creepy Crawlies oven. This place is really unlocking memories.”

           “Jesus, bud, you ever think about getting rid of some of this stuff?” Jared asked.

           “I have,” Wes assured him. “I only got the walking space cleared out last year. I had more at the house, but Sadie made me unload a bunch of it. It’s… okay, though. It’s easier when she makes the decisions for me. I’m not a hoarder; I just don’t like getting rid of my old things. She actually does want me to keep quite a bit, as well. Plus, I can write some of this unit off as a business expense, since I come here for motivation or references for game items and their pixel art. A lot of toys are in these bins.”

           Arthur muttered, “So, ‘visit Narnia with Lucy…’ Do we need to put our brains together on that, or do you already have a good idea of what it means?”

           “Yeah, pretty sure I do. Lucy only asked me to keep a few things of her own in here, the biggest of which is this plastic dollhouse from the early 90s she loved so much. Now where…” He looked around, and spotted the closed-up manor on a corner shelf, at shoulder height. “She should really give this to Sally before she gets any older.”

           The others leaned in as he went to the dollhouse and opened it up, revealing its two floors and the six-member plastic family entombed inside. In the master bedroom was a wardrobe, as tall as the smiling mom and dad. Wes took a deep breath and pried open its door with a fingernail. A small tin jewelry box that just barely fit inside fell onto the bedroom floor, which he took out and then shined his phone light upon.

           He read aloud the words inscribed with a Sharpie, “‘If you open, there’s no going back.’ Huh…” He gave it a rattle. “Well, we’ve come this far. Can’t have an anticlimax.”

           Inside was a rock. More accurately, a dull, foggy quartz of an impressive size, but which was otherwise unremarkable. Wes dropped it into his hand and studied it.

           “Um…” Jared murmured. “Why did you hide away… an ‘emergency crystal?’”

           “I… I don’t know,” Wes said and pocketed it. “But maybe we can find out.”

           “This is delicious, Sadie,” Colin said and went for seconds on the roast. “Your cooking tastes just like what your mom made us the few times we had dinner there.”

           “She’s still the best cook in the neighborhood, as much as I try,” Sadie replied, as Wes continued to fidget with something in his pocket. “You guys have fun today?”

           “You bet,” Arthur stated. “Hey, Warren, if they bring back SiliCon next year, you should go. With your dad, if we’re not around. You might like it.”

           “I’m not big into computers,” Warren sighed, after swallowing a bunch of food. “It’s not like I think they’re just for nerds, but I only have a laptop, and I barely use it.”

           “But you’ll probably like the old games on display,” Jared added from the end of the table. “You like the vintage games part of the toy museum downtown, don’t you?”

           “I guess… Though I don’t really like crowds, either. Dad! You got a text.”

           “Huh?” Wes snapped out of a pensive trance. He released the crystal in his grip and tapped the screen of his iPhone. The message was concerning. “Ah, damn it.”

           “Daddy, no swearing at the table,” Sally flatly scolded him.

           Sadie asked, “What is it, Wes? It can’t possibly be work-related this time.”

           He grumbled, “It’s Lucy. Jace still hasn’t come home.” He thought for another second, then jolted out of his chair, leaving half a meal. “Well, I can’t let Luce worry. I’ll get in the car and drive around. This is something I’d expect from Warren.”

           “Hey, no fair,” Warren muttered. “I missed curfew one time, and it was Chad’s fault. Jace is smart, and Laurie is… diligent. They probably just lost track of time somewhere. Also, if you’re leaving all that food behind, don’t expect leftovers.”

           Wes sent Colin, Jared, and Arthur a signal with just his eyes, and the three rather begrudgingly got up as well, cutting their dinners a bit short. Still, they had gotten more than enough, and thanked Sadie for the fine meal on their way out the door.

           “Geez, Dad. You have an entire search party,” Warren, already poking at his dad’s chunk of beef with a fork, remarked. “Check Austin’s place first—they have crappy wi-fi, and it’s a cell dead zone. Oh, and ask if we’re still on for gaming tonight.”

           “Be nice when you find him,” Sadie called out as the gang headed out the door.

           “Wes, do you really need all of us to look for a couple teens?” Colin wondered.

           “We’re not; we’re going to Millie’s,” Wes said, unlocking his car once they hit the driveway. “I don’t know what’s going on… but I just had the strangest idea.”

           Back near the downtown core again, Wes parallel parked in front of the modern and tall apartment building where Millie lived. He knew he needed to get his friends more on his side before coaxing them into possibly breaking and entering.

           “This is Millie’s place… I used to think how she could possibly afford the rent, but now, I…” Wes exhaled and turned to face Arthur and Jared in the back. “Guys, I don’t want to say too much about my crazy theory right away. Still, don’t forget that the safe note mentioned her. She ‘knows the rest.’ I think if she sees the weird crystal…”

           “Wes, we’re used to you saying crazy things, so try us,” Jared replied.

           “I mean, she could be home, right?” Arthur added. “We see her, show her the quartz, and maybe she tells you it’ll heal your chakra or something. Then we go back to Desert Tree, find the kids, and play some Jackbox. But, yeah, tell us what’s up first.”

           “What if… Jason got into some sort of trouble back in 1998, and that’s why we never saw him again? I mean, who can say for sure what he and his… weird dad were running from. I don’t know what happened to him, or why his text was either insanely delayed or actually scheduled to arrive today, but if he says Millie may have answers…”

           “But if he needed our help over twenty years ago, Wes…” Colin murmured.

           “The whole thing is bizarre, I get it. I wish I could say more about what I got going on in my head. It’s just… N-never mind. Arthur, we might need your help here.”

           Arthur looked at Wes like he had no idea what he was talking about, but got out of the car with the others nonetheless. They proceeded into the immaculate lobby with slate floor tiles and a fake waterfall, and Wes led the way to the reception desk, where an older woman was watching TV on her phone that was propped up against a book.

           “Good evening,” she said and took out her single AirPod. “Can I help you?”

           “Ah, we’re friends of Millie Vanbusen,” Wes said. “We haven’t seen her in a long while, and I was hoping we could… go up to her unit, or, like… meet her down here?”

           “Oh, Ms. Vanbusen? Hold on, I’ll try buzzing her.” She pressed one of the many resident call buttons, and waited for a response. After several seconds, she replied, “I’m sorry, she doesn’t seem to be home, or isn’t… answering.” After a beat, she leaned closer and spoke candidly, “To tell you the truth, I wasn’t even sure she had any friends. I haven’t seen her come in or out of the building in quite some time, either. I assume she’s on an extended vacation or something; she’s still keeping up on her rent.”

           Feeling pressured by his buds, Arthur let out a sigh, then stepped up and took out his wallet to flash a special ID card. “Ma’am, sorry to bother you, but I work for the government, and there’s an active investigation involving Ms. Vanbusen. Me and my… associates need to take a quick look at her unit. It’s a matter of… uh, national security.”

           “Oh, my! Is she in some sort of trouble? I just knew there was an explanation for her odd behavior. Well, I don’t want to know or be involved. Here’s a copy of her room card.” She handed over chipped plastic. “Number 605. Please, try to keep things quiet. I wouldn’t want to scare the other tenants.” She added in a nervous whisper, “We’ve already received numerous… comments about her… ‘aloof’ behavior.”

           “Thank you for your cooperation,” Arthur replied with a pleasant smile.

           They hurried over to the elevator, and only exhaled once the doors closed and they were going up to the sixth floor, with Jared remarking, “Good job, Arty…”

           “I can’t believe that worked,” he huffed. “But here I am, acting like this is some kind of critical concern, when it could all be a lot of nothing. You owe me, Wes.”

           “Millie has to have some answers,” Wes shakily reaffirmed.

           Like most modern apartment buildings, the floor hallway was plain, very quiet, and only featured gray carpet and white walls. They went to Millie’s door, Arthur giving it a knock but only waiting a few seconds before swiping the card over its receiver. It unlocked with a click, and he slowly pushed his way into a lightless apartment.

           Wes spoke up, not too loudly, “Millie? Are you in here? Hey, it’s your old friends, a little worried about you.” He sniffed. “The air seems a bit… uncirculated.”

           The four slipped inside, softly closed the door behind them, and looked at the row of light switches, but wordlessly decided to keep the room dark, illuminated only by the other city buildings in the window—and the glow of a bulb from the bathroom, its door opened just a crack. No noise was coming from inside, so they made it their first stop. As if he really were in an investigation, Arthur opened the door cautiously and with his sleeve, as to not leave any prints. But they only found a typical small bathroom, clean and nearly empty of supplies; no bottles of shampoo, no tube of toothpaste.

           “It does look like she hasn’t been here in a while,” Colin murmured. “But why’d she leave the light on? Hm… What’s this?” He picked up a bottle by a small tipped-over trash can. “Contact lens cleaner, empty. Looks like she was rummaging… But why?”

           “You’re making this out to be some huge mystery, Colin,” Jared said as he hit the light and they left the bathroom. “I’m sure she keeps any devices and computers still here locked down, but if we look around, maybe we’ll find something about the crystal.”

           “This apartment is so bare-bones. Personality wise, I mean,” Wes noted, while taking in the sight of the darkened living room and the twilight cityscape outside. “No pictures on the walls, no trinkets or memorabilia lying around… We really should’a been nicer and more inclusive with her growing up. She did join our circle in the end, but maybe we never stopped seeing her as the socially-awkward creepy spy at DTE.”

           “You can’t put it all on us,” Arthur argued. “We invited her to plenty of our get-togethers and let her hang… around us, but she never really opened up.”

           “Yeah, I guess. It’s just that it hasn’t changed much, either. She helps us out and watches over the kids sometimes, but even now, she is still a bit aloof.” He went quiet when they heard the sound of papers hitting the nearby bedroom’s carpet. “Huh?”

           They tuned their ears to the next room over, and heard some angry mumblings like, “All this effort, and I still miss details,” and, “I’ll be lucky if I have even one more shot at getting this right…” Among other subdued esoteric ravings.

           Things were silent for a few moments, but then the door suddenly tore open. A very on edge Millie with messy hair stopped mid-step in the doorway, where she stared at the group and attempted to hide her anxiety by trying overly hard to compose herself.

           “Um… Millie?” Wes spoke up. “You doing okay? Sorry about breaking in, but… Look, the guys are in town, and we decided to check on you. Wanna, like… chill out?”

           “What?” she snapped. “I, uh… I can’t talk right now. Sorry, I gotta get going. Why am I even apologizing? I didn’t invite you guys over. Get out. I’m… busy.”

           “We can help, if you’re in a bad place or something like that,” Colin offered.

           “I don’t need your help. What I need to do is leave.” She checked her watch. “I’m almost out of time. They always show up right at… Will you guys just go away?”

           “Who’s after you?” Arthur asked her. “I may be able to get them off your back.”

           “Grrr…” Millie glowered at them—and took out a crystal remarkably like the one Wes had found. Hers was glowing a very dull blue, only noticeable thanks to the low light. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. I don’t care if you see a magic trick. Bye. Out of here.” They watched her squeeze the quartz, repeatedly. “I said… Come on! Work!”

           Arthur, Jared, and Colin looked borderline scared by Millie’s behavior, but Wes put on a brave face and took a step closer, taking out his own crystal on the way.

           “I’m sure it’s tough, whatever you’re going through. I’ve had times like that, too. But it looks like… you also have one of these things.” He held up his quartz. “So… you must know what they are, right? Why would I hide it away? What can it do?”

           Millie stared at the object, a sly grin appearing on her face. But then she scowled and asked, “You went through the front door, didn’t you? You tripped the security.”

           “Uh. How else were we supposed to get in? I don’t hear any alarms…”

           “The cops probably aren’t the only ones about to converge on this place now…” She mumbled something quietly, and sighed. “Whatever. I’ll still get it right this time.”

           Without warning, she snatched the crystal from Wes’ hand in a swift motion and pressed on its surface tightly. Within a couple of seconds, it too began to glow blue.

           “Hey!” Wes exclaimed. “That’s still mine. Look, Mill, I’m trying to be nice, but—”

           “Stop!” boomed a deep, commanding, and unfamiliar voice. “Drop it. Now!”

           The guys hadn’t seen or heard them come in. How could they have? It wasn’t as if they were expecting more visitors, especially the kind that didn’t even use the door.

           Bewildered, they turned to see three tall, muscular men dressed like some sort of police unit from a sci-fi future—each of them wearing shades and armed with imposing laser rifles. There had been three bursts of light a split second beforehand, and then the officers were just there, in the middle of the living room. Yet apparently, Millie seemed to know who these gentlemen were, and didn’t take kindly to their arrival.

           “Only warning, timer!” a second cop ordered, “Jump, and we will find you!”

           “Good luck with that,” Millie scoffed, and gave her stolen quartz a squeeze.

           She vanished in a flash, and her displaced mass produced a faint breeze. The biggest of the cops had picked up on her readiness to flee through space or time, and fired off a sphere of electricity that passed through the spot where Millie had just been, which dissipated harmlessly against the apartment’s kitchen wall.

           “Damn,” the officer grunted. “Sergeant, did you get a solid ID on her?”

           “Facial recognition came through,” he replied. “Don’t worry, rook. We always track down rogue timers. Now, then… Maybe these locals know something.”

           The three hulking peacekeepers turned to face the intruders, still stunned silent.

           Jared was the one to eventually say, nonchalantly, “Um… Evening, officers.”

           “You four,” the sergeant said sternly. “Are you aiding this suspect? You can’t be here by coincidence. We need to bring you in and ask some questions.”

           “Seriously? We’ve been trying to track her down! Just like whoever you guys are.”

           “Jared, dude…” Colin whispered sharply. “Maybe tone it down? They look tough.”

           “Don’t worry,” the lead cop continued. “Cooperate, and we’ll return you to your homes with no memory of these events. Don’t resist. We deal with all kinds of people.”

           “Oh, hell no,” Jared replied aggressively, took out his phone, and had the guile to flip it into landscape mode. “I know my rights. I don’t care if you’re the transdimensional police or a bunch of T-1000s—me and my friends are not going to be harassed.”

           The sergeant let out a disappointed noise of some sort, and signaled to one of his partners—who promptly put Jared into an inescapable bear hug that might as well have been from an actual bear. He struggled in the cyborg’s grasp and his phone went flying.

           “Jared!” Wes shouted. “Hey, let him go! He’s a bit dumb, but harmless!”

           The sergeant opened up a blue-hued portal in the living room, calmly adjusted his sunglasses, and tried to keep things from escalating. “Locals so often go for the hard way. You’d think seeing a trio of… It doesn’t matter; just do what we tell you. Or you’ll be treated the same way as your accomplice.” He gestured to his strong-armed partner.

           “I demand a call to my lawyer!” Jared wheezed. “Listen to me! I co-own a very important and large company, and if I don’t show up on Monday, hundreds of employees will be worried—” he was cut off when he and his captor vanished through the portal.

           “Anyone else want to be carried, or do you prefer walking?” the other cop asked.

           “H-hold on,” Arthur stuttered. “Can we talk about this? I also work for the government, and I’m sure a quick phone call will help us sort this all out.”

           “They haven’t heard of us,” the sergeant replied. “Our department hasn’t been created yet. Now, while I’m still asking nicely…” He stopped and shifted his attention when his irises suddenly glowed a bright emerald from behind his shades. “Hm…? What are you doing here? We have this under control… But… All right, fine. Standing down.”

           The two remaining officers stepped back and holstered their pacifying weaponry. Wes, Arthur, and Colin stood frozen in place, still as confused as they were when such a strange sequence of events first started, and waited for the next bizarre thing to happen.

           There was a light knocking on the balcony’s door to attract attention, and they turned to see the sliding glass open from the outside, letting in a cool night breeze. Millie walked back into her apartment, only now she was wearing different clothes and didn’t seem at all frazzled, unlike her two-minutes-ago self. With her was a punk-light girl in LED-lined boots, who looked like she was right out of a neo-80s retro future.

           “… Millie? What did you…” Colin, now overwhelmed, wasn’t sure what to say.

           Equally stupefied, Wes added, “Weren’t you just here? What the hell’s going on?”

           “Don’t ‘what the hell’ me!” Millie snapped. “What are all of you doing in my apartment? You triggered my alarms, and… Nyra, did the cops just obey you?”

           “I am… so confused,” Arthur sighed deeply. “Wes. Let them do the talking.”

           “Ma’am,” the sergeant said to the synthwave queen. “She got away.” He paused, looked at Millie, and shook off his own confusion. “But we’re going to interrogate—”

           “Allister, don’t ‘ma’am’ me,” Nyra groaned, and gave the robocop a backhanded pat on the arm. “Tch, ya know, you were cuter before your cyborg conversion.” She then turned to the three very dumbfounded guys in the room. “Sorry about all this. You must be some of Millie’s old friends, yeah? I’ll get this out of the way; that Millie you just saw and, I’m assuming, vanished in front of your eyes isn’t… this Millie.”

           ‘This Millie,’ now also in the confused club, replied, “Nyra? You mind explaining all this to me? Because right now, I’m just about as in the dark as they are.”

           Nyra huffed and gave her neck a crack before shifting focus to her. “Sorry, Mill. I do consider us friends, and I’m not normally great at making them, but the truth is, I’m a fed. We work with and oversee the metal guys, and also run our own investigations. I’ll tell you everything when we get a moment, but we have a mess to resolve first.”

           “I… But you… Gah…” Millie rubbed her forehead. “Wes, Arty, Colin—this is the first I’m hearing about some ‘shadow’ version of me running around causing trouble. I’m sorry about whatever she… Hold on, you haven’t traveled recently, have you?”

           “I mean, summer just started, and the kids can’t compromise on where they want to go this year, so…” Wes stopped and went back to looking nonplussed. “What am I even saying? I just came here to talk to you about a weird crystal I dug out of storage, and next thing I know, another you takes it and Jared gets carried through a wormhole!”

           “You arrested Jared?” Nyra asked. “Damn… I wanted to meet him the most.”

           “Sorry, Nyra,” Sergeant Allister said. “Given the suspect’s priority, he was likely taken straight to HQ for questioning. Freeing him involves red tape. Your favorite.”

           “Mierda…” Nyra grumbled. “If we’d gotten here a few seconds earlier… Guys, I’d love to get to know you, but that meeting will have to wait. We’ll mem-wipe you and get Mr. Reiner back home before he was even taken. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt.”

           “No, w-wait,” Wes stuttered and took out his phone. “Millie, you have to help us out here. I don’t know what’s going on or where you’ve been, but… the terminators, and now you—you’re all time travelers… Right? Here, just look at this message.”

           “Time travelers? Really?” Colin whispered to Wes as Millie shuffled over.

           She took the phone, read the text, and murmured, “Jason…” then handed back the antique 21^st century device and spoke to Nyra. “Remember Jason, from my stories? I don’t care about your lying and using me to help along an investigation right now—you know who Jason really is, and he’s stuck… in a place only we can get to.”

           “Mill, I swear, we are friends,” Nyra said emphatically. “I was going to tell you everything as soon as my report was submitted.” She looked at the trio and groaned. “But I don’t even need to think it over. If he’s in trouble, we’ll get him out of it.”

           “Thank you…” Millie turned back to the three. “So. Are you all ready to go help a childhood friend, see some familiar sights, and… oh yeah, bust Jared out of jail?”

           Colin glanced back and forth at Millie and Wes, and exclaimed, “Are either one of you going to fill us in on what the heck you’re talking about? No more cryptic stuff!”

           “I’m still baffled, too, Colin,” Wes said. “And yet… I have this strange feeling…”

           “I’m just going to go ahead and say it,” Millie replied. “There’s a cloaked shuttle hovering by the balcony outside that can time travel. We’ll be going to 1998. And this won’t actually be the first time the three of you have gone to the past, either.”

           “… What? What?!” Colin burst, while Arthur remained stoic. “You’re joking!”

           Nyra reacted to this accusation by tapping at her smart watch, which commanded her invisible aircraft to open its door. They watched as a hatch opened up outside from thin air, with the tip of the door landing softly on the edge of the balcony railing.

           As the trio tried to find the words, Nyra finished things. “Okay, Allie, I’ll remand them into my custody and let you clean up. Feel free to name-drop me on the report.”

           “So, this is Mr. Colton? Be careful, Nyra,” Allister replied. “I’ve read the stories.”

           No more was said until they had all stepped aboard the shuttle, quietly hovering at a low altitude over a busy road. The sight of cars and their lights passing by below was replaced by a homely yet cozy interior of an aircraft that looked like it belonged to a rugged sci-fi bounty hunter. Once the hatch had shut, the fuselage and whatever noise-cancelling devices that were running inside obscured all of the urban noises.

           “Sit anywhere,” Nyra said as she shoved off random gadgetry and odds and ends that covered a patchwork of chairs in varying condition. “I think I have enough seats.”

           “… Stories?” Wes piped. “I’ve gathered that time travelers lose their memories eventually… is that right? Did I go on some big adventure and cause a bit of trouble?”

           “That’s up to you to tell the guys, once you remember,” Millie replied. “As soon as we jump, it’ll hit you all at once. Quartz is the typical tool for light travel, and then there’s the big hardware like this old, but reliable bucket. Two years ago, a portal opened up in my living room, and brought me to the future. I still don’t know who created it or why, but it put me in the 29th century version of this very building. I was mistaken for an intruder, put in jail for a day, and next thing I know, Nyra here has bailed me out and we become… fast friends. Though now I know there’s a reason for it.”

           “I am sorry about the deception, Mill,” Nyra said from the open cockpit, where she was studying a holographic sphere of a city street. “But I’ll make it up to you.”

           “She likes 90s years,” Millie explained. “We’ve been visiting a bunch of them.”

           “There’s an underlying cultural-societal thread that shows up in every century’s last decade. Hope, maybe? Excitement for the new and what’s next? I’m still trying to pin it down, but the 1990s are my favorite of all. And not just because of the millennium.”

           “Yeah… I can kind of tell,” Wes replied. “The way you talk and dress—it’s like how some fan in the future would go about showing their fondness for another era.” He came closer and looked at the holosphere. “Interesting name. Nyra. So… is that a map?”

           “Not really. I’m named after the space station where I was born. And this should look familiar; it’s ‘live’ feed of this spot in 1998. I’m scanning a minute before and after our arrival point to make sure the coast is clear. Time travel is all about not being seen.”

           “That is the Royal Valley from the past…” Arthur said, his eyes lit by the sphere.

           “You all might wanna buckle in,” Nyra cautioned and began firing up the ship’s systems. “Jumping this much mass is a little intense. And I don’t have any dampeners.”

           Back down on Earth and away from all that sci-fi stuff, on a Saturday in early summer, 1998, a scene of late childhood simplicity: Jace and Laurie, sitting and waiting on the steps of their old school, Desert Tree Elementary. The area of the neighborhood was empty and quiet, as if all the kids out there enjoying their first worry-free weekend were doing their best to avoid seeing the building that reminded them of homework and teachers. For a couple of teens that left the school in 2020, though, it wasn’t so bad.

           “You can’t really tell that we’re in the past, from this spot,” Laurie said, to break the silence. “The school feels so… familiar, almost unchanged from our run. I already miss those days. A little.” She rubbed her hand over the top step’s pavement, careful to avoid the blackened years-old crushed gum. “I wonder how many pairs of shoes from how many generations of students have walked right here…”

           “You’re sounding like my uncle,” Jace murmured. “He had all these thoughts about the past. His past, too. Always trying to put a feeling into words. But I think I’m starting to get nostalgia, now. If just barely. So… What’d you think of his friends?”

           “They’re great. I can really tell how tight they are. Even when they’re bickering and ‘putting up with each other,’ they know what they got is worth hanging onto. It’s so cool they’re still friends in our time, and they’re so like us. Jared has Chad energy. Colin’s like both Jamie and Austin, and I’m a sort of mix of Sadie, Celeste, and Wes. Zach is a total Toby, of course. I won’t mention Millie right now because of what she did, but it’s no wonder you like Ash and Emiko… Even if you still won’t tell her how you feel.”

           Jace blushed, but it was subdued this time. “She’s not ready to hear something like that from me. You see how she just laughs and shrugs off Toby and Chad whenever they try to ‘make a move.’ So, uh… Does that mean ‘Jason Connor’ is like Warren?”

           “Well, that should be obvious. You and Warren are so…” She went quiet for a few seconds. “Hey, Jace… Can I talk to you about something I’ve been…”

           She was cut off when, without any warning, what appeared to be an aircraft hatch opened up in the thin air a few feet over the sidewalk just out front of the school, revealing the shuttle cabin beyond. Jace and Laurie had no precedent for what was going on, but she did check her watch and showed him that it was 6:00 PM on the dot. And then Wes appeared in the space of that floating entryway, holding his head in pain.

           “Hey… kids,” he muttered with a weak smile. “Need a lift?”

           Hesitantly, the two stepped aboard the cloaked aircraft, and the door shut and locked behind them. Instead of wasting time on introductions, Nyra got the shuttle back into the sky over the neighborhood right away, where it was less likely to be discovered, or walked into. Seeing Colin and Arthur seated as well was odd enough, but what really felt strange was the way the aircraft simply floated straight up without need for torque, engine systems, or even any noise at all. Only a brief sense of acceleration remained.

           “Uncle Wes… I was hoping for a rescue, but this is something else,” Jace said. “I get that it’s a time machine, sure, but how does it… you know, fly?”

           “Your uncle’s still going through the time travel bends right now,” Nyra replied. “So, I’ll explain things. Um… Hi, Jace. And Laurie. Name’s Nyra, I’m from the ticking present, and this is my shuttle. Like most 29^th century vehicles, it moves by manipulating gravity directly. Efficiently and quietly. Also like most vehicles, it’s still got thrusters for when you need that extra oomph… But, ya know, good deuterium fuel is expensive.”

           Laurie glanced at Jace and asked, “Cool tech specs… But who are you?”

           “Oh, just a federal agent who protects the timeline. And a friend of Millie’s.”

           “Yeah. Hey, guys…” said a voice that the two didn’t really want to hear.

           The kids turned to see that Millie had been just to their right the whole time. She seemed a little more composed and stable than the last time they saw her, but still…

           “You jerk!” Laurie snapped. “How could you just leave us stranded here? You were the adult! If your teenage self wasn’t nice enough to let us stay over, we’d have been…” She took a breath to calm down. “Jace was right… You aren’t the same Millie.”

           “He’s a quick one,” Millie sighed. “It’s true. Apparently, there’s some evil version of myself running around. I don’t know when or where she came from, but Wes and his buds had a run-in with her at my place in 2022. Jared was taken by the cops, but Nyra here assured us that we can bail him out. First, though, we’ll get you two home.”

           Jace looked at Colin and Arthur and asked, “How come you’re both… okay?”

           “Uh, well, I guess we didn’t have any memories to… remember,” Colin guessed.

           And Arthur added, “Millie says we were also time travelers at some point, but we don’t seem to remember any of that. We’ve only been reunited for, like, five minutes our time, so she hasn’t really had a chance to explain what’s going on with that just yet.”

           Millie slouched against the fuselage with crossed arms. “Not much to say, really.”

           “Tell us anyway,” Wes, still in recovery, groaned. “I don’t remember that, either.”

           “All I got is a secondhand account from Jace, since he told me everything about a big event before he forgot it. That timeline doesn’t exist anymore, which, Nyra’s told me, happens often. But if you travel and make a big change that affects enough people, whether purposefully or not, then you do risk creating a true, stable, branching reality.”

           “Those are code red incidents for the bureau,” Nyra said. “But there isn’t really much we can do after a solid branch is created. It’s an ethics issue, because when you start talking about changing fortunes en masse and kids getting born that wouldn’t have come along in the original line… At that point, can you say that mending or deleting that branch is the right thing to do? There’s an ongoing debate about it a century old.”

           “Which is about as old as time travel itself,” Millie noted. “Other than André’s fluke discovery-slash-accident, in the 2040s. Well. A time cop with a vendetta caught up to Wes, but Jace got the gang together in 2020 to save him and Warren in ’96—keeping it from actually happening. So, yeah, technically all of Wes’ old friends except Ash and Zach have time traveled. It’s just that in this reality, causality was voided, as they put it.”

           “Man, that’s a lot to take in,” Arthur mumbled, scratching his thinker. “No one remembers that timeline? You only know because Jace told you about it?”

           “We have quantum supercomputers that can record voided lines,” Nyra said. “I personally studied the events as part of my investigation, after a certain hot-headed TMB police captain was dragged into one of our time daemon chambers. The reason he went rogue at all is still canon, but we kept him from going after you a second time, Wes.”

           “Geez, Wes, what’d you do to piss off a cyborg officer that much?” Colin asked.

           Wes murmured, “I can think of one thing… But I don’t remember why I did said thing… The memories get fuzzy. Maybe I just need time to resolve all this in my head.”

           “No idea what a time daemon is, but Nyra, the future sounds freakin’ awesome,” Laurie exclaimed. “Jace! You want to see it, too, don’t you? After everything you and your uncle did in your epic adventure… It’ll, like, give you more closure going there.”

           Jace replied, “I’m… not sure. What if it’s dangerous for us, for a lot of reasons?”

           Nyra grinned. “I wouldn’t even consider it if you didn’t have me as an escort. I’ll give your unk time to think it over. But first… Jared can wait a little longer. Mill,” she turned to her friend, “I don’t want to miss this chance. C’mon. Let’s have a 90s day.”

           The gear extended, and the shuttle made a soft landing. Everyone got out of the invisible aircraft, with only Nyra seeming to consider this not at all strange, especially while a bad Millie was out there and Jared was in time jail. But here they were anyway, parked at one of the distant and neglected corners of the mall’s large lot of cars.

           “Nyra…” Jace grumbled. “I don’t really want to say this because everything else is so cool, but I was just here yesterday. Why’d we skip ahead to Sunday afternoon for this? And I know no one’s parked near us, yet, but what if someone smashes into your ship?”

           “You worry a lot, don’t you?” she laughed. “I figured you wouldn’t otherwise still be in ’98 today, so I thought we’d go back to tomorrow and let you say bye to the gang. Good-byes are important. As for keeping the Seagull safe, I have a ‘high-tech’ solution.” She tapped her holo-bracelet that must’ve also acted as a key fob for the old bird, and eight safety cones deployed from invisible chutes along the hull. “Nothing like some classic reliable bright orange cones to tell everyone else to stay back. We use ‘em a lot. And if we get found out? I mean… Time travel. Go back, hide better, try day again.”

           “Low-tech solutions, still getting it done,” Colin said. “So… you like malls?”

           “I like them from this era. My modern ones are too flashy. Even on the moon.”

           “She knows I don’t care for them,” Millie remarked. “Please. No Hot Topic.”

           “We are definitely going to Hot Topic,” Nyra giddily affirmed and led the way.

           “Wow,” Wes said to Jace quietly as they began walking. “Is that how I was when we started out? That first time we went here together in ’95 feels so long ago.”

           “She does seem way too excited,” Jace replied. “I bet she sees you as a relic.”

           This made Wes feel a little self-conscious, but he tried to stow his lingering issues so that he could enjoy a surprise trip to the mall of the past, likely for the last time.

           Nyra was becoming more of a mystery to him by the minute. On one hand, she was a skilled time-pilot and professional agent. On the other one… she was proving her fanaticism for the 1990s. He, and the other adults, could barely keep up with her and her whirlwind tour of Royal Valley’s skylight temple to consumerism. Whether she was strolling through the arcade and watching teens at play with eyes aglow, trying free samples in the food court, browsing edgy clothing and fan merch, visiting a photo booth with Millie, or treating the Sears like a museum and its appliances as priceless artifacts, her boundless energy and enthusiasm had worn out the others after an hour.

           “Nyra, you’re not, like, augmented with cyberware, right?” Wes eventually asked.

           “Not outside the basic neural-netchips and bionic eyes. Why?” she wondered.

           “No reason. Maybe you just have a futuristic gym membership.”

           She chortled. “You don’t need to add ‘futuristic’ to everything. I know it’s a little mind-boggling to think about people eight centuries away, but we’re not so different.”

           “Hey, Wes,” Jace suddenly spoke up upon noticing their current location. “Maybe we shouldn’t be going to this side of the mall. I saw someone at a stall yesterday that—”

           “Nick?” Eddie’s voice burst out from his stand of new and used ‘legit’ watches. He shifted his attention away from a potential customer to approach a startled Wes, and put on his best cigar-chewing grin despite not having one. “Nick Deckard, that is you! Oh, wow. This some kind of family and friend reunion visit to the mall or what?”

           “Uh. Hey, Eddie,” Wes replied meekly. “I… didn’t think I’d see you again. I’m guessing you’re mad at me for the whole prison thing, but I had nothing to do with that.”

           “Oh, no worries. My fault, really. I can’t manage finances anymore, but it’s okay. I met some standup guys in the clink, and now we have a totally above board business enterprise. It’s starting small, sure, but there’s room to grow.” He patted Wes’ shoulder, which made him uncomfortable, and turned to the others. “I tell ya, this guy was a sage with the market. We made it big together, for a bit. I never learned his secrets, and all he tells me is…” he snorted, “that he’s a time traveler. Heh… Hoo… Take it easy, Nick.”

           “… Isn’t that Willa’s grandpa?” Arthur said as Eddie returned to his stall-tending.

           “W-wait a minute. Nick Deckard? Wasn’t he…” Colin looked back and forth at Jace and Wes, and fumbled with his glasses. “Wes! Holy crap! You were Jason Connor’s dad! A-and Jace—you’re Jason! Huh… I guess I forgot to put the pieces together.”

           “You’re just now getting that, Colin?” Arthur replied.

           “Look, Arty, I was too overwhelmed by the whole time travel revelation to think straight about anything else. I don’t have your cool-under-pressure togetherness.”

           “Okay, we saw the mall, can we go back to yesterday and get going?” Millie asked.

           “I dunno, Millie,” Laurie said cheekily. “I think Nyra’s having more fun than she’s had in a long time. Maybe we should see a movie… and go to King Arcade.”

           “Of course!” Nyra blurted. “I still haven’t seen your theme park! Too bad the 2035 earthquake takes it out. Oh. Oops… spoilers,” she told a wide-eyed Laurie. “Sorry.”

           The rest of the afternoon was spent checking out most of King Arcade’s rides, including the Red Demon rollercoaster, twice. Nyra had become like a kid in a video game store, and while Millie remained more reserved, Wes, Colin, and Arthur all enjoyed themselves and their visit to a special place in its golden age.

           “Figures she’d kick our asses at the games,” Arthur said as they left the Galaxy Hub arcade. “Probably VR trained for the agency she works for or something.”

           “Are you sure she’s a government agent?” Wes asked Millie. “She’s so…”

           “I know,” she huffed. “Her every new experience is always too exciting.”

           Towards the end of the day, everyone went to see the critically disliked 1998 Godzilla, America’s first attempt at bringing the giant lizard to the screen, with the kaiju attempting to nest in cold and urban New York City for some reason. The destruction scenes were fine, but everything else brought out groans from everyone. Except Nyra.

           “I looove ancient 2-D movies, the more practical effects the better,” Nyra told the group once they returned to the lobby. “They’re still made, sort of, but as a whole mind experience that puts you in their universe. No one’s made a Godzilla title since 2796.”

           “Your movies are cool, Nyra, “Millie replied. “But Jared is waiting.”

           “Don’t we have all the time in the world to bust him out?” Laurie wondered.

           “Well… Not exactly,” Nyra said. “Time is complicated.”

           After returning to the invisible shuttle that had been parked in the back of the theater parking lot and taking to the skies again, Nyra four-dimensionally piloted her passengers to Castle Hill Overlook at sunset, the day before. It was then and there that Jace had made plans to hang out with the gang one last time during his short return.

           The adults hung back on the dusty yet popular old vista as Jace and Laurie got to chat and joke with the other teens by the guardrail—the younger Millie giving her adult counterpart plenty of glances as she mostly just listened to the boisterous chatter.

           “Look at her…” the older Millie said, hands in her jacket pockets as she leaned against a phone booth at the opposite end of the sight-seeing area. “Still wearing those dorky glasses she’s had since third grade, still awkward around the other kids who are trying to include her out of politeness… And I feel like we’re still stuck together.”

           “Mill, you let loose and open up on our excursions all the time,” Nyra argued.

           “Because I always feel obligated to show I’m having fun when I’m with friends. Truth is, though, I’m usually content with just staying inside all day, doing whatever.”

           “See, I don’t believe that. I’m an introvert, too, believe it or not, but that doesn’t just make you an antisocial shut-in. It means you place more value on the friends you do have and the experiences you share. I think you’re scared of something, and that’s saying a lot when you’ve been to the moon, Mars, and the one big city on Callisto.”

           Colin spit out some of the slushie he had been slurping on, and after suffering a coughing fit as well, burst, “Wait, seriously? Millie! You’ve been all the way to Jupiter?!”

           “Well, yeah.” She kicked at dirt. “I’ve been in an era of routine space tourism and fusion rockets. We did a long starliner tour in a third-class cabin with planetside ferries. Being to space and bouncing in low gravity as a gas giant hangs over a dark icy horizon do change your perspective, but are eventually just more experiences you pack away.”

           “That’s still nuts that one of us has been to space, Mill! Oh, man, you gotta tell me all about that. Ugh, advancements have been so slow in our present.”

           “Routine, but still dangerous and for the brave,” Nyra noted.

           “You just must know everything about me, don’t you…?” Millie asked flatly.

           “… I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner. But you were so diligent in chronicling the events that resulted from the temporal incidents related to Mr. Corathine and Wes’ Time Lab. Yes, you provided invaluable documentation for a big investigation, but the more I read your journals and thoughts, the more I connected with you.”

           “Going through private memories isn’t how you should ‘connect’ with someone.”

           Taking a chance to break the tension, Wes turned to the sunset over the city and murmured, “It really is a nice view. I wouldn’t have wanted to grow up anywhere else.”

           With twilight on the way, the kids said their final goodbyes to Wessy and the others, with Zach striking a pose for the two visitors. As the gang broke up to return to their parents’ waiting cars, Jace and Laurie headed over… with Teen Millie in tow.

           “I was wondering how you got here without a car,” Millie remarked, her eyes on her older self. “I got Jace and Laurie to tell me everything. And I’m coming with you.”

           “Well, no use arguing with me. I would know,” Adult Millie grumbled. “Nyra might have a little space left in the cargo hold, so who else are we inviting on this trip?”

           Jace replied reluctantly, “Be sarcastic, but there is someone else we should bring.”